You'll get the latest updates on this topic in your browser notifications.

“This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers,” Professor Tal Dvir, who led the research team, told The Jerusalem Post. “People have managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, but not with cells or with blood vessels.”

Printing the heart

Dvir and his team used biopsied fatty tissue from patients, and then separated the cellular materials and macromolecules to create a heart that was tailored to the individual patient.

“This heart is made from human cells and patient-specific biological materials. In our process, these materials serve as the bio-inks, substances made of sugars and proteins that can be used for 3-D printing of complex tissue models,” Dvir explained.

Printing the heart

Amir Levy/Getty

Though their initial hearts are rabbit-sized, he said the same technology should work to create one that would fit a human. They plan to test the hearts in animals first, and if they’re successful they will move on to printing human-size hearts and trying them out.